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Cyanogen removing support for WhisperPush secure messaging

CyanogenMod is withdrawing its support for the WhisperPush secure messaging service, which has been part of messaging in CM ROMs for a couple of years, beginning February 1. Users of CM 13 would have already noticed that WhisperPush functionality wasn’t officially supported and required a patch to enable via an MMS APK. Now, CyanogenMod has announced it will officially stop supporting WhisperPush at the start of next month.

The removal of official support for WhisperPush will be a server-side change, so all versions of CyanogenMod from CM 10.2 onwards will be affected. The decision came about due to ongoing registration and location-based problems that were creating issues with Cyanogen’s maintenance of the service. Furthermore, recent changes to WhisperPush would have made CyanogenMod’s implementation a “seemingly unnecessary fork”.

The team at CyanogenMod is recommending users of WhisperPush to switch over to Signal, which combines TextSecure and RedPhone for secure SMS and calling. Signal is made by Open Whisper Systems, co-creators of WhisperPush with Cyanogen. Cyanogen’s decision to remove WhisperPush support was also due, in part, to the rapid uptake of the official Signal app.

All WhisperPush phone numbers will be unregistered on February 1 and messages sent after that date will be sent as regular SMS. So if you’re in the midst of a conversation that is in need of encryption, best wrap it up soon and switch to a new service like Signal in the next week or so.

Do you use WhisperPush? What secure messaging service do you like best?

Kris Carlon is a Senior Editor at Android Authority. He is a half-British Australian who lives in Berlin, travels a lot and is always connected to a laptop, phone, smartwatch or tablet (and occasionally a book).